October 2018

Damien Leake didn’t run at Malaga, but the M65 sprint star’s marks at the mid-October Huntsman World Senior Games make for interesting comparisons. It isn’t apples to apples since the Utah meet didn’t have heats and semis. And conditions differ. But check out Damien’s times and distances. ( ts are here.) He won the M65 100 in 12.52. Malaga gold went to Britain’s Stephen Peters in 12.56. He won the M65 200 in 26.74. Malaga gold went to Stephen in 24.84 (Damien would have taken bronze.) He won the M65 long jump with 5.09 (16-8 1/4). Malaga gold went to…

At 67, Michael Kish of Nutley, New Jersey, is a relative newbie to masters track. He took up the sport at 59, taking advice to check out the New Jersey Senior Olympics. So when he deciubded to enter Malaga in the 100 and 200, he naturally wondered about running a relay. In late July, Michael wrote USA Team Manager Phil Greenwald, who graciously replied, discussing the difficulty of saying whether he would be on a foursome. Phil concluded his 400-word note: “My advice is always to plan your trip around your individual events; if you are available for the relays…

Close to 4,500 ran in Sunday’s Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, with many (if not most) over 35. It was designated the World Masters Athletics Marathon Championships — the first time a 26-miler was held outside the WMA world outdoor track meet since 1975. So how many folks competed for WMA medals? Would you believe 35? Yup. Forty-three years after the first WAVA gold medals were awarded in the marathon — at Toronto worlds — runners couldn’t care less about a “world title” at Scotiabank. One reason: You had to pay an extra $110 to enter the WMA event, run concurrently…

Dave Albo the supershooter from Colorado is asking for help picking out his best of 9,300-plus images at Malaga worlds for entry in the IAAF photo contest. He’s chosen his top 13 and wants y’all to advise him on which to submit. “If I were to make the top 3,” he notes, “I’d get a trip for two to Monaco in December to attend the award ceremony. I have a LOT of good images from Malaga, so .. why not enter and see what happens? There is no downside in doing so. The hard part is that I must submit…

With a heads up from Herb K, I learned of a Thursday post in The Onion that made me smile. The headline: “Sprinter Feels Like An Idiot After Finding Out About Jogging.” Of course, the reverse holds as well: “Marathoner Feels Like An Idiot After Finding Out About Sprinting.” In the meantime, I’m adopting the best of both worlds — running short distances slowly. What led YOU to choose your event?

I’m getting excited for 2021, and not just because I might burn my mortgage that year. Indoor worlds comes to Edmonton that year (as noted in Malaga coverage). A report last month in the local paper has a great quote: “It’s a very attractive event from the city’s perspective because it’s not a group of athletes coming on a government-funded program, who stick around their hotel and eat Ramen noodles. They’re out spending money, they’ve got disposable income.” So says James Rosnau, executive director of Athletics Alberta. I’m also eager to compete in the coolest named arena — the Butterdome….

It goes without saying that the goal of USATF masters is winning as many medals at possible at worlds. But was a decision to move Charlie Allie down from the M70 4×100 to the M65 team in Malaga the most efficient course? I’ll let others debate that. For now, I’ll pass along the first response I’ve gotten from USATF National Masters Chair Rex Harvey since posting the Roger Pierce complaint nearly a week ago. Rex graciously writes: Please make it known to your readers that, while he does more work than any of the rest of us, volunteer Phil Greenwald…

Results of the Sept. 30 Club West Masters meet in Santa Barbara show Jeff Davison’s hurdle time and Marie-Louise Michelsohn’s steeple mark next to each other. Not shown: How spectacular they were. At 76, Marie-Louise nipped the listed W75 world record in the 2000-meter steeplechase with her 11:30.52. WMA shows the record as 11:30.55 by China’s Xuhua Chen at 2016 Perth worlds. I wrote Marie-Louise for details on her amazing mark at UC Santa Barbara. She graciously responded: My lap times were 2:07, 4:36, 6:54 9:17 11:30.52 Final time. So splits were 2:07, 2:29, 2:18, 2:23, 2:13. The first lap…

The forecast for St. George, Utah, early next week is highs in the low 70s. Nice. It’s time for the Huntsman World Senior Games — the last major geezer meet in North America. It’s Oct. 15-17 at Snow Canyon High School (“NEW Mondo Track!!”). I don’t have access to the entrants list, but the schedule shows a lot of competition in many of the 50-plus age groups. At least nine gents over 85 are entered in the 100, for example. (And 16 in M75, 22 in M60.) So you’ll have to earn your medals. The popular 50-meter dash and standing…

Relay records fall so often that I tend to get jaded. But when an M70 SoCal Track Club foursome ran in Wichita a couple weekends ago, the result was stunning and historic. The team of Gary Patton, Tim Wigger, Salih Talib and Grady Cash clocked 10:51.08 in the 4×800 to crush the listed WR of 11:09.87 by Jim Selby, Alfonse Escobar, Gunnar Linde and Avery Bryant at 1998 Orono nationals. That’s 20 years ago! In July, the team of Fred Lindsley, Grady, Tim and Salih ran a pending WR of 11:03.46 at West Regionals in Culver City, California. (I noted…

A meeting to discuss theOMA/AO Memorandum of Understanding will be held on Wednesday, November 21, 2018, 6:30pm at the offices of Athletics Ontario. Variety Village 370 Danforth Avenue, ScarboroughOMA Board members will be present, and all OMA members are welcome to attend.

Great to see a supplement company supporting masters athletes, and in my target of the World Masters athletics indoor champs in Torun
#RoadToTorún2019
@Biosynergy #TeamBioSynergy #MakeItHappen #TuesdayThoughts

Jason Carty's story is a remarkable one and the World Masters sprint champion told it to @JohnShepherdFit during an interview which now features on our website and in our current magazine.
📺 Watch the video here ➡️ https://t.co/qle0kiYSrC @TheBMAF @WMA_admin

Stewart Marshall @stewgodiva 🇬🇧 wins the #400meters final M35 in 49.37s. Full gallery of this event now up at https://t.co/qRppKa8EyB #WMAMalaga2018 #worldchampionships #trackandfield #masterstrackandfield https://t.co/e0CQ1vE68u

Yup! Politicians, she believes, “owe us an answer,” and so she, in her own very Terry Gross way will “keep asking and re-asking and asking, and maybe I’ll ask it in separate ways, and maybe I’ll point out that they haven’t yet answered the question.” https://t.co/5Jr9BdvtBx